I disagree with this resolution because it inherently supports the idea that two tests are necessary going forward, despite the Match merger. Having two tests puts significant financial and academic burdens on DO students which simply do not exist for our MD counterparts. Though AMA recently declared COMLEX and USMLE equivalent, it is unrealistic to expect program directors to change decades-long and scientifically documented discrimination against COMLEX scores within the next few years. Every year where this discrimination exists is another class-year of DO students who face unfair burdens. This is why there should be one test for all medical students with an osteopathic supplement for DO programs. Making COMLEX and USMLE more similar will not remove the extra burdens of taking two tests, nor decrease the anti-COMLEX bias instantly.

Marisa DeSantoOhio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine - AthensPosts:

Hi Daniel, you make an important point that there is definitely still discrimination that exists with COMLEX vs. USMLE in some residency programs, and it is difficult to alleviate through making score conversions/increasing education/changing parts of COMLEX. Brylie (the other co-author of this resolution) and I had discussed writing a resolution just as you said: removing COMLEX and having everyone take USMLE + an OMM exam, but after talking to faculty at our school who understood COMLEX and have worked with the AOA, we learned that it wouldn’t be well accepted by the osteopathic community and wouldn’t represent COMLEX. Since COMLEX has osteopathic principles included in most questions and is not just an added section on the exam, switching over to USMLE technically wouldn’t be a test that is appropriate to our education, though I fully agree with you that it would alleviate a lot of discrepancy by only taking USMLE. After the AMA established equality with the two exams, our goal was to make the scoring system the same as USMLE to make COMLEX easier to interpret and remove the need for score conversions (that are often inaccurate). We think this can put us in the right direction to have both exams equally valued in residency applications while COMLEX is still the exam we are required to take for graduation.

Hi Marisa, thank you for your response. I appreciate your efforts in drafting this resolution. I can definitely see how there would be push-back from the osteopathic community as a whole and, since I am studying for both exams now, I understand how the two exams structure/approach themselves differently. However, as far as osteopathic medicine goes in terms of differentiating itself from allopathic medicine, I disagree with the notion that the exams are dissimilar enough (minus the overt osteopathic questions, of course) to warrant their continuing independent existence. Considering that the two exams are designed to cover the same material to train us to see the same patients in the same disciplines (except OMM), the differences in where they put their emphasis seems inconsequential in the long run. Holding onto these differences in the long run only does a disservice to students.

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